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Chapter Two: My Family

"Viper, might I have the pleasure of your company?" Viper paused on the staircase and spun around to see Longwei standing behind her. A flitter of panic went through her and the images of the warriors in the forest flashed through her mind as they'd been doing all week.

"I … can't … I apologize, Shifu needs me to—"

She was cut off as Longwei, tall and handsome, sprinted up the following steps and took her arm. His dark hair was pushed back away from his face and he stood almost a foot over her. This was the nephew of the Emperor.

"Viper, you've avoided all my attempts to get you to have lunch with me this week, like we always do. What have I done to upset you?"

He sounded sincere, but she didn't know. Honestly to herself, something felt wrong. The display in the woods had her feeling awoken inside … like something was about to happen. It was the first time since the end of the war that she even remember her old fighter self somewhere buried inside of her.

"Nothing—I just promised Shifu that I'd—"

"Please, Shifu can wait," he persisted. Soldiers pasted them on the stairs and Viper hesitated again. The morning air was warm and sweet like a breath of summer.

"All right … uh … just let me get cleaned up," she said smoothly and took her arm out of Longwei's calloused hand. She turned away and could still see the beaming smile that had lit up his dark face.

They had lunch in a private room, sitting on beautiful decorated Indian pillows and the room filled with lavender incest. "Tell me about your life before the war," Longwei probed. His thick eyebrows contracted as if he really was interested in her life.

"Why, so you can have me beheaded for mentioning Tigress' name?" she snapped back and then looked horrified with herself. Her tanned face tightened with terror. "I'm sorry, please excuse my outburst, I-I forgot my place."

Damn, now she really did sound like Tigress.

Three years ago, Viper wouldn't have thought twice about throwing down a response like that, but now everything was different. So very different.

"No. No. Please, forgive me. I just really do want to know about you and your teammates. Please, Viper, after all this time I hope you would know me well enough to know I don't like all of my father's decisions. I want to hear your story," he rumbled and put a hand over hers.

Viper hesitated. Was she really willing to tell him something him something so close to her heart?

"I … I wouldn't know where to begin," she stuttered and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. She had changed into her pink robes with long sleeves and lace. It was a gift from Monkey a year ago for the anniversary of Crane's birthday. Pink and warm like her heart, he murmured and then disappeared back into the training of the ranks.

Longwei had a long black robe on with silver embroidery that only made him seem even more like a shadow. His long hair and lanky hair was long enough to almost brush his shoulder. His nose was long, but his cheekbones high. He was almost the exact opposite of Crane in every way.

"When did you first become Shifu's student and Viper, please, speak freely. We're alone after all." He gave her a smile and cautious smile.

"When I was 10 years old; my own father was a kung fu master and when he discovered that I had talent in the art, he wrote to Oogway and Shifu and that summer I moved into the Jade Palace."

"Your father didn't want to train you himself?" There was a tone of curiosity in his voice that Viper hadn't heard before.

"No; he was away at war for long periods of time and it's always hard to train your child. There are so many chances to really mess up; he didn't want to risk it. He and Shifu were old friends and Shifu was the only master to ever have trained girls.

"At the time, it was unheard of for women to learn kung fu, but Shifu already had adopted Tigress and the two of them had started making history together."

Longwei's eyes widen and Viper stopped her story abruptly. "Shifu was Tigress' father?"

"Yes, well sort of … he had adopted her when she was four, almost five, and ended up training her in kung fu. At the age of 13, she became the youngest master ever and the first woman to master Tiger Style Kung Fu, but at the time, Shifu was more of a master, than a father. I know he regrets that now, but…"

"Keep going," he encouraged her and took a sip of wine. She paused for a moment and then smiled.

"Mantis was already a student of Shifu's when I arrived, but he travelled back and forth to his family in Mongolia and the Jade Palace. Monkey and Crane came within the year of each other and with Crane as the final piece to the puzzle, we became the Furious Five. I was 15.

"Crane was a transfer from Lee Da and had almost mastered all of Crane Style. He was almost 18. He was the quiet one. Not mysterious like Tigress, but quiet and when he did raise his voice, everyone listened. When he first arrived, everyone thought Shifu was joking, this tall skinny legged boy was almost a master, but, boy did he surprise all of us."

"Did … were you two …?"

"Crane and I?" Viper took a deep breath and told herself to be brave. "No. Maybe if we had had more time, but no. We weren't seeing each other."

Lie.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" He trailed off and took a grape off the platter. "So back to the story. What about your Master Monkey?"

"Monkey had also lived in Mongolia, like Mantis. Oogway found him playing tricks on the villagers and sort of took him under his wing. He was 16.

"Monkey and Mantis were a pair immediately. There was never a moment of rest when they were together." She smiled for a moment and then bitter memories overwhelmed her; giggles at the Palace, sweat filled training in the halls, the feeling of exhausted muscles and noodle soup slick down her throat.

"Tell me about Shifu. Was he a hardass like everyone says?" Viper chuckled pathetically and swallowed the tears at the back of her throat.

"Yes, worse, probably. But there was a time after Po became the Dragon Warrior, that Shifu became less hard and began to open up again. After Po Ping fell into our lives, everything was literally complete and everything was happy. We were a family. For a short time, at least."

She took a deep breath and forced herself to take a sip of red wine. She readjusted her position on the pillow at looked at Longwei. He gave a crooked smile and she felt her stomach flutter.

"What about Tigress?"

Viper's lip shook, but she focused her mind and eyes on the sky out of the window. "Tigress was only this tiny little red headed thing when I first met her. I had never met anyone like Tigress and I haven't since. Tigress was everything I had ever wanted to be: confident, strong, powerful, beautiful, commanding, a prodigy. At the time I first met her, I didn't understand why Tigress got to have what I thought was everything. The first year I was so jealous of who she was and what she could do, but as our years together grew, I learned that Tigress didn't see herself the same way the world saw her…"

"What do you mean?"

Longwei had leaned forward on his mat and had his eyes intently on her face.

"Tigress had a lot of bad things happen to her in her life. Her father had stolen her mother—a princess in small kingdom mean the edge of China's borders—and taken her hostage back to his base. He was a general in the army with fiery red hair and an even more fiery temper. And when her mother accidently got pregnant, they … they ripped the baby out of her stomach and tried to drown it in a river, but somehow she floated down river and ended up in someone's camp. We don't know how she survived—she shouldn't have been able to survive outside of the womb—that's why Tigress was so small-but once she was old enough to live, the locals dropped her off at an orphanage. And the mothers there discovered that she had this uncanny strength and they were afraid of it … and her.

"So they locked her away in this cell of the room for years until they sent for Shifu to come and kill her I guess, but Shifu saw something in her … I guess … I've never exactly asked him before and eventually took her back to the Jade Palace with him.

"And she, Shifu, Oogway, and Tai Lung they were a little family. I've seen photographs back from before the … the war … and I haven't seen Tigress smile that she had smiled in those photographs. But when she turned nine, Tai Lung … he …"

"I know about Tai Lung," he said gently. "Then what happened to their family?"

"It shattered into pieces. Shifu became cold and distant and Mantis' family took him away for a while. Something changed. In both of them.

"We used to have a video camera at the Palace and the videos went back to before the Furious Five was even a thought. In the videos, she and Shifu seemed inseparable, but after Tai Lung left, they both seemed to shut down.

"Even since I've been there, it's been so formal between the two, I don't think I've ever heard Tigress address Shifu as anything but "Master" … I think there were too many pieces to glue back together."

She turned and met his eyes and found the black stones oddly comforting. "That's sad. Father's are important, whether blood related or not."

She found herself nodding silently. "And when Shifu finally realized what he had done, he tried to begin to mend all of back together with Po's help, but Tigress wanted no part of it.

"And I wouldn't blame her!" Her voice had become fierce, protective. "Shifu set the bar so high for her and when she met it he only raised it higher and higher. I think he broke her heart. But regardless of the two of them, all of us, we were a family. She was my sister."

Viper snapped her head around his meet his face head on. Her eyes burned with an expression of agony. "What happened to her?"

He jerked back in surprise and shock. "Viper…" his tone was patient, but her tears seemed to grow.

"No. Tell me what you did to her. I-I need to know!" She felt a stir of emotions and Longwei took her fists, trying in a vain attempt to calm her down.

"Did … did she suffer?"

"Viper, those details aren't for your ears to hear," he said softly and the answer was clear to her. With all the energy she had moments ago gone, she merely dropped onto the floor.

Longwei kneeled before her and brought her hand onto his chest, a comforting gesture she had not expected. "Is there any … any chance she escaped. Any at all?" Viper sobbed into his chest.

"No, I'm sorry, Viper. I truly am. But I saw the ashes myself."

And with that Viper let herself be held as she mourned once more.

"Enjoying lunch with your new little friend, Vi, love?" Viper could feel her blood boil at the sound of Mantis' voice. After she had dried her tears, she felt strangely calm. As she made her way to go and speak with Shifu, the betrayer had come to call.

Nobody saw Mantis for a long time after the war, but the feelings of betrayal and hurt hadn't faded. He had spoken to Viper before, some in the dungeon and outside when she and Shifu had finally been placed under house arrest.

Mantis caught her as she moved down the stair case and she ignored him as they passed each other. "Nice dress, Viper, I like the new color. Shifu still wearing black? Times have changed."

He grabbed her arm and flipped her around. "Get your filthy hands off me, traitor."

"Ouch, nice way to greet an old friend," he drawled. "And my hands are perfectly clean, little lovely."

"Your hands have blood on them that will never wash off," she hissed at him and wrenched her arm out of his grip. "I hope you burn in hell."

"Sticks and stones, Vi, or maybe that's really whips and shackles."

She couldn't ignore that. Flipping around she was a blur as she smacked the box Mantis was carrying out of his hands and pinned him up against the white stone pillar. With anger pumping in her veins instead of blood, she tightened her grip on his shoulder.

"How dare you speak of Tigress! She trusted you and that meant nothing. You threw it all away. You owed her your life seven times over. How dare you."

"What going to do a little snakety snake action on me, Master Viper? Go on! I dare you," he snarked. His grin was enough to make her want to kill him. Sweat trickled down her forehead and her heart was pumping erratically.

Suddenly she was aware of all the people gathering and staring. All of a sudden, she was being pulled away by gentle hands. She hadn't expected that. "Vi, baby, you need to get out of here."

Monkey.

"Come on, we need to get you out of here, before Quang finds out. Come on…" She let herself be led away by Monkey's hands and she just really wasn't there anymore. They had almost reached her and Shifu's room before she managed to choke out any words.

"He killed her, Monkey. He's the reason she's dead."

"I know, baby, I know.